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SIREN has a vision of a new America where immigrants are valued, integrated, and seen as essential to our society, and where the human rights of all persons are protected and honored. SIREN’s core value is immigrant empowerment. We focus on immigrants themselves being the primary agents of change. By strengthening and deepening the participation level and leadership of immigrants, we work toward long-term systemic changes that promote social justice and equality, freedom from oppression, and an end to poverty. Through these long-term systemic changes, immigrants will have the opportunity for individual/social responsibility, self-determination and political participation. By accomplishing this, we will have a society that is compassionate, inclusive and united.

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it would be terminating Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for people from Nepal who had been granted this status after the devastating earthquake that hit that country in 2015. The termination will take effect June 24, 2019. This announcement follows a trend by the Trump Administration to end TPS for the nationals of almost every country this has been applied to, including people from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, Liberia, and Sudan. What is clear to those of us who support people from these countries is that the decision to end TPS for Nepal, just as the decision to end TPS for other countries, was not based on facts or changes in the country conditions that originally created the need for this protection. Rather this is one more step in the Trump Administration’s war on immigrants, that is disproportionately being waged on people of color and immigrants from the Global South.

SIREN condemns in the strongest terms the termination of TPS for people from Nepal, just as it has condemned the ending of TPS for people from every country that has been ended. SIREN’s Executive Director Maricela Gutiérrez made the following statement, “We are once again calling out the Trump Administration for its callous ending of TPS for people from another country, this time for the Nepali community. Each one of these decisions is devastating for people who have lived in our communities, been our neighbors and co-workers, and who want nothing more than to stay in their adopted homelands. It’s clear that the Trump Administration does not govern on the basis of facts or compassion. But if there was any doubt, today shows this once more. We call on DHS and the Trump Administration to reconsider its decision to end TPS for Nepal, just as we condemn the end of TPS for all people who have seen the possibility of continuing to live in their adopted country legally ended overnight. We also urge Congress to act immediately with compassion to pass a permanent solution to the people that are finding the end to their ability to stay in the U.S. legally when their TPS status is ended.”

SIREN | Services, Immigrant Rights, and Education Network

SIREN’s mission is to empower low-income immigrants and refugees in Santa Clara County through community education and organizing, leadership development, policy advocacy and naturalization services. We believe that all people regardless of legal status or nationality are entitled to essential services, human dignity, basic rights and protections, and access to full participation in society.

As we fight for immigrant and refugee rights, we ask you to consider making a donation or becoming a monthly donor. Your support will directly support free legal services, advocacy work for more just laws, and leadership training for community leaders.

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